This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from my application PREVENTING DEVICE FROM SLIP-DOWN OF PAPER IN INK JET PRINTER filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on May 12, 2000 and there duly assigned Serial No. 2000-25323.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet separator mounted on an automatic sheet feeding device of a printer, and more particularly, to a sheet separator having an improved buckler mounted on the automatic sheet feeding device in the printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
An automatic sheet feeding device including a sheet separator has been used in an ink jet printer. The automatic sheet feeding device is obliquely installed on a side of a printing device in the ink jet printer that horizontally rests on a table. Sheets of paper are loaded in the automatic sheet feeding device and are slanted with respect to the side of the printing device. The sheet separator is mounted on a lower portion of the automatic sheet feeding device and disposed to contact the lower ends of the sheets loaded in the automatic sheet feeding device. The sheets are separated by the sheet separator and supplied one by one to the side of the printing device of the printer by a pick-up roller disposed adjacent to the automatic sheet feeding device. The sheet separator, however, can neither separate and supply the sheets one by one from the automatic sheet feeding device to the printing device nor support remaining sheets of paper loaded within the automatic sheet feeding device while supplying of one of the sheets to the printing device.
In efforts to improve the sheet separator, U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,040 entitled Sheet Separator to Oleksa et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,190 entitled Specialty Media Feed Guide Snd Sheet Feeding Apparatus Using Same to Campbell et al. disclose two different friction materials and a plurality of friction pads attached to the automatic sheet feeding device. Sheet separating and guiding mechanisms disclosed in these references, however, are not sufficient to separate the sheets one by one, support the sheets stacked in the automatic sheet feeding device diagonally mounted on the printing device, and guide the sheets one by one from the automatic sheet feeding device to the printing device in a horizontal direction.
The automatic sheet feeding device having the conventional sheet separator fails to separate a single sheet from the sheets stacked in a tray of the automatic sheet feeding device. Moreover, a plurality of sheets will slip down to the sheet separator due to vibration generated in the course of picking-up a sheet from the sheet stacked in the tray, and the plurality of the sheets are picked up simultaneously and fed to the printing device when a particular type of sheets, such as an over head projection medium or coated papers, are used, or when the printer is used in high temperature and high humidity condition.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved sheet separator mounted on an automatic sheet feeding device diagonally installed in an ink jet printer.
It is another object to provide a sheet separator able to effectively support sheets of paper within an automatic sheet feeding device diagonally installed in an ink jet printer.
It is yet another object to provide a sheet separator able separate sheets one by one from an automatic sheet feeding device diagonally installed in an ink jet printer.
It is still yet another object to provide a sheet separator able to hold remaining sheets stacked within an automatic sheet feeding device diagonally installed in an ink jet printer.
It is also an object to provide a sheet separator able to prevent a slip down of sheets stacked within an automatic sheet feeding device diagonally installed in an ink jet printer during picking up a sheet located on a top of the sheet.
It is further object to provide a sheet separator able to prevent a plurality of sheets from being picked up from an automatic sheet feeding device diagonally installed in an ink jet printer simultaneously.
These and other objects of the present invention may be achieved by providing an improved sheet separator for preventing a slip-down of sheets stacked in an automatic sheet feeding device diagonally installed in a main body of a printing device of an ink jet printer. The sheet separator includes a friction dam disposed to contact lower edges of sheets loaded in the sheet feeding device, a buckler body disposed on the friction dam and between the friction dam and the lower edges of the sheets, a guide projection formed on an upper side of the buckler body for jumping up a top sheet located on a top of the sheets from the automatic sheet feeding device toward the printing device of the ink jet printer, and at least one or more jack bucklers having a plurality of inclined projections having a slide side and a threshold side, the slide side allowing a lower edge of the sheet located on the top of the sheets to be jumped toward the main body of the printing device while the threshold side prevents lower edges of the remaining sheets from moving toward the slide side.